Popular Music, Sports, and Politics: A Development of Urban Cultural Movements in Dar es Salaam, 1930s-1960s

Abstract

In colonial Tanganyika, popular music and football were the most important genres of popular culture in urban areas then as now. From the 1930s, these modern forms of recreation grew out of a precedent tradition of the competitive dance societies among the Swahili on the coast. In the capital Dar es Salaam, various musical and sporting organizations developed in the urban community made up mainly of coastal Africans, besides including the migrants from upcountry and the people of Arab descent. These organizations were interrelated and had overlapping memberships, and their heyday also coincided with the awakening for national politics. The African Association, the fi rst modern political organization established by Africans, was founded in Dar es Salaam in the late 1920s, and later became the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). During the campaign for independence, there was a close collaboration among the bands, football clubs, and TANU.